— first encountered on reddit post

• language-learning-strategy dubbed language islands

• peddled by Boris Shekhtman, Mikel the Hyperpolyglot
  • I think ❐ Why You STILL Can’t Speak Fluently — Try the Language Islands Method (Works FAST)
    1. make a list of convos you want to have
    2. find sentences you need to be able to say
    3. manually translate them
    4. TTS or let a native pronounce them
    5. ◊ active recall

In 2008, the International Civil Aviation Organization (or ICAO, a United Nations–mandated agency) introduced requirements that they be able to speak and understand English to a certain level of proficiency by March 2011. The goal was to make the Babel of the skies clearer and safer. Implementing the standards butted against some linguistic realities, though. One was the diversity of accented Englishes that pilots and controllers encounter every single day. In one nine-hour observation, Turkish air traffic controllers interacted with 160 pilots from Turkish airlines, 14 from German airlines, and 104 pilots from airlines from 26 other countries—all speaking English. Yet only 2 of the 104 pilots worked for airlines based in an English-speaking country and presumably were native English speakers. Rather than focus on producing native-like English speakers, ICAO focused on flying and landing airplanes safely. You didn’t need to discourse about squids or default swaps or the existence of God, as you might have to do in other tests of language proficiency.

— ❐ Babel No More